Paul Greengrass' "Captain Phillips" hasn't missed a beat since that pair of surprise Oscar misses in the Best Director and Best Actor categories a few weeks back. The film pulled out a Best Adapted Screenplay WGA win last weekend and Friday night it routed fellow Best Picture nominees "Gravity," "Her" and "12 Years a Slave" to win the ACE Eddie Award for dramatic feature film editing. "American Hustle," meanwhile, bested "Nebraska" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" to claim the comedy/musical prize.

Both of these I frankly saw coming. The organization has a ton of respect for editor Christopher Rouse (who won this award in 2008 en route to an Oscar for "The Bourne Ultimatum") and I don't think it's a signal of weakness on "Gravity's" part, especially as it pertains to the Oscars, where it could still easily win this award. When I think of "Captain Phillips," I think of an expert assemblage of footage. "Gravity," on the other hand — though still a post-production marvel — is a collection of long, extended takes. It's not difficult to imagine a group of editors would be more inclined to honor something accomplished on a more traditional spectrum.

Nevertheless, I've been saying for a few weeks now that the key to this year's Best Picture Oscar race may yet lie in the envelope for Best Film Editing on the night of March 2. If the winner is indeed "Gravity," I think we have our Best Picture answer. Ditto "12 Years a Slave." If it's anything else (and I think "Captain Phillips" is far more likely than "American Hustle"), then it will probably be a nail-biter until the final envelope is opened. But I'm happy for Rouse, whose work is amazing on this film, a film that took an unfortunate bump on Jan. 16 but keeps on keeping on.

Elsewhere, "Frozen" and "20 Feet from Stardom" won the animated and documentary prizes. Both are pretty well set up for big wins at the Oscars. "The Office," "Breaking Bad" (which had to win, given it accounted for four of five nominations in its category) and "Homeland" won top TV honors, while Steven Soderbergh — under his "Mary Ann Bernard" pseudonym — won in the TV miniseries or motion picture field for "Behind the Candelabra."

Oh, and a great night for "Captain Phillips" didn't stop with the top prize. Greengrass received the organization's Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year prize, too, presented by fellow Oscar outcast Tom Hanks.

Check out the nominees here, the full list of winners below and remember to keep track of all the ups and downs of the season via The Circuit.

Kristopher Tapley has covered the film awards landscape for over a decade. He founded In Contention in 2005. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London and Variety. He begs you not to take any of this too seriously.

I'm especially happy for American Hustle's win, and I'd love to see an interview with American Hustle's editors, to hear how they dealt with a shooting style that was apparently very loose and actor/improv-driven. They managed to bring so man great comic beats, and so much genuine emotion, to a sprawling story. Some have criticized the film for being "messy" and too long. I disagree, and I'm glad to see the editors did, too.

The way it's going he may end up empty handed. Hope not cause he deserves Director more than anyone. That said, I'm glad Gravity didn't take this because sweeps are off-putting and could backfire. Plus Philips was criminally snubbed in some categories (Tom! :tears:) so some consolation in that it's still able to win awards.

I don't think that "spread the wealth" ideology will have anything to do with it, for two reasons:

1. AMPAS voters have given big-name directors 3 statues in one evening before (Coen Bros., James Cameron). "Over-rewarding" something they like has really never been an issue for them (as in, they often do it).

2. Many voters may not really be aware that Cuaron is even nominated in the Editing category in the first place. The final ballot in the "below the line" categories simply lists the film name and does not include the nominated individuals. The theory goes that people like Roger Deakins and Greg P. Russell constantly go winless in part because voters aren't seeing their names each year they go to mark their final choices - just the films for which they've been nominated.